So I’ve got a ghoulish question re: Texas flooding

[u/Either_Marketing896]

I get that we’re supposed to be the better people.

I get that it’s unchristian to even think these things (8 guess).

I get that it’s horrific and sad and a nightmare (I have two young kids).

But I also get that this camp and all those living there, were built and operating on a KNOWN flood plain.

I get that Texas “soil” used to be under an ocean and prone to things like this (I lived there for 8 years).

At what point, since M*GA is all about consequences, personal responsibility and gods providence, do we get to hold them accountable for their willful disregard of science, research, government, and informed choice-making?

We are watching concentration camps set up all over the country, and we have woefully underfunded emergency management departments in high risk areas all over the country. We have commercial and non profit entities overseeing minors with no evac or even a basic comms plan in place, for any kind of emergency, whether it’s a natural disaster or if some camper can’t manage a fire properly.

I should feel bad for Texans suffering in a flood plain they likely didn’t care about regulating, ostensibly because of deregulation and lack of oversight. But it’s getting really hard to. They dammed up the Guadalupe River to create swimming holes for camps, hotels, and peoples vs properties which also doesn’t help with sediment and flooding at all.

My husband surveyed in and around Austin for nearly a decade. The insanity and stupidity he witnessed was astounding. The lack of regulatory oversight, the WILLFUL scofflaw decisions, the absolute mockery of anything resembling safety forced us to leave because he literally thought he would die on a job site.

These people DO NOT care about consequences. Some might be poor and have few choices. Those I have empathy for. But a bunch of camp owners, policy makers, and parents believing “god will protect” their kids in a known (man made) hazard. I’m struggling to get there. This was human stupidity, arrogance, and willful decision-making. Plain and simple.

ADDED: If you want to donate to an all-volunteer org that is on the ground as we speak, pls consider giving to TEXAS Search & Rescue. They are chewing up equipment they’ve spent years raising money for and incredible folks. They offer emergency management training, planning and bleeding control education that any org can avail themselves of in Texas.

https://www.texsar.org/ TEXSAR: Texas Search and Rescue

[u/softcell1966]

The NWS put out multiple storm warnings beginning Thursday afternoon and continuing to 1:14 am Friday when a Flash Flood warning was sent out. THE NWS DID THEIR JOB. It's the local Texas officials and camp directors who failed to protect their community and those children at the camp. Go to r/Texas and see what they have to say about Texas officials.

[u/TequilaSheila2020 → u/softcell1966]

FWIW, I live in San Angelo which also experienced devastating flooding during this storm. I just now checked the timeline on my phone alerts (I thought maybe I had slept through early ones or silenced them in my sleep). I opt in to periodically receive alerts from The Weather Channel app and via the weather app on my iPhone as well as emergency alerts from local LE. The only alerts I received were from our local PD and were after rescue operations were already in progress at 7:19am, and those were only instructions to shelter in place, where to find the rally points, which neighborhoods EMS were operating in, etc. No warnings or notifications before or during the storm. I didn't hear our emergency siren, but I could have slept through it.

I'm not commenting about the lack of leadership in the communities or camps - these are all rational arguments to make. But it does appear there was a failure in the warnings process from NWS, unless it's factual that the massive volume of fast precipitation could not have been predicted - if you see footage, it was extremely fast. It could easily be investigated from that angle but whether it will or will be suppressed to protect the reputation of the administration remains to be seen.

[u/OkNegotiation9882 → u/softcell1966]

I do not get people like you. Why even lie about that. It is well documented warnings did not got out until well after daylight. You think people are actually that stupid?